[ExI] Bill Weld

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Wed Apr 17 22:54:53 UTC 2019


On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:12 PM Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

*> Assuming Weld loses, as is likely, what would be the damage if the LP
> both nominated someone and supported Weld? *
>

If the Libertarian Party is really sincere when they wax poetic about the
value of libertarian ideas then their number one priority should be
preventing the most anti-libertarian president in American history from
winning another general election. And, because there is only one person who
has a realistic chance of stopping Trump, that means supporting *ANY
FUNCTIONAL ADULT* the Democrats nominate and doing so with enthusiasm. Its
the least they can do after their disgraceful 2016 performance.


> *> The LP's nomination would presumably happen well after the Republican
> primaries, so these would be two separate contests.  And, the LP seems
> likely to draw off far more Republicans who don't like Trump but refuse to
> vote Democratic,*
>

If we lived in a rational world there might be some truth in that, but we
don't. It's hard to imagine 2 more different politicians than Donald Trump
and Bernie Sanders and yet 12% of the many millions of Sanders fans voted
for Trump in the general election, 5% did not vote at all and 10% did the
equivalent by voting for a third party nonentity.

I think that a substantial minority of voters want a candidate who has no
chance of winning, they hate Trump and fool themselves into thinking a vote
for Joe Nobody is a vote against him and, because they know he can't win,
they don't have to take responsibility for actions taken by somebody who
might actually win.

Currently there are about 20 people trying to get the Democratic nomination
and 19 of them will fail,  its inevitable that some fans of those 19 are
going to have hard feelings against the winner, most intensely hate Trump
so they won't vote for him but if they don't think it through they might
vote for Joe Nobody the Bozo Party candidate.


> *> than all other groups of voters combined - so if anything, they would
> deprive Trump of Electoral College votes.*
>

Although they will receive millions of popular votes I would bet money that
in 2020 third parties will get ten times as many electoral votes as they
did in 2016, and if I've performed the multiplication correctly that works
out to be precisely zero.

John K Clark




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